Extreme Escape Colonnade – Breaking Point [Review]

Sarah Mendez

Nov 15

Face your fears...or don't

Location: San Antonio, TX

Date Played: August 25, 2023

Team Size: 2-6; we recommend 2-4

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $39.99 per player; $34.99 per player for more than 5

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: There is the potential for electrical shocks. These are avoidable if you read closely and complete the relevant puzzle correctly, but at least one player will be at risk.

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

Breaking Point's premise was that a diabolical bad guy had created a game that forced us to face our greatest fears, a unique theme for an escape room. Indeed, it made fair efforts to present disgusting and creepy vignettes that required a bit of bravery but ultimately simple trust that nothing in this room was truly real.* Unfortunately, the game also faced us with our greatest escape room fears, resulting in an experience that was "scary" for mostly the wrong reasons.

A dirty bathroom with unusual plumbing, lit purple and greet. On the wall behind the toilet the words "anxiety," "phobia," and "fear" are painted.

These frustrations fell into three categories. First, there was a good deal of number soup wherein four-digit codes could easily map to any of several locks. This was exacerbated by dim lighting and the fact that 1 number lock carried a 4-minute penalty for entering the wrong code, begging for some indication of what was intended. This introduced the second category of madness: penalizing players for missteps by subtracting time (or just making us wait), a trope that was especially frustrating when the input mechanism for a particular puzzle seemed both flaky and poorly constructed. Lastly, multiple set pieces were simply stuck, requiring excessive force to open as intended… so much force, in fact, that we nearly broke one.

It is entirely possible that infuriating players with some of the most fatal flaws of escape room design was intentional. It certainly added to the pressure, and perhaps there is an audience among enthusiasts who want to test their patience in these ways. If so, consider coupling this room with Horror on Hallows Eve or The Undead at this same location. Those games are more traditionally satisfying, so the triad would provide the complete gauntlet of Extreme Escape's horror-adjacent experiences.

*Actually, the shocks were real. Have fun!